{"id":69464,"date":"2018-03-20T17:29:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T22:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=69464"},"modified":"2018-03-20T17:29:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T22:29:14","slug":"cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket in Chicago kicks off league games in April"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> By Annnaya <\/strong><br \/>\n<em> Medill Reports <\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Cricket is all the rage in Southeast Asia where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka\u00a0 revere this\u00a0pastime as more than\u00a0 a major league sport\u00a0 and something closer to a religion.<\/p>\n<p>Actual shrines in India are dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar, one of the game\u2019s greatest players.<\/p>\n<p>Immigrants who move here miss the sport. So cricket lovers in and around Chicago who are from the Asian subcontinent got together and decided to start a cricket league. The American Cricket Conference was born\u00a0in 2001.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The league games across the Midwest\u00a0start at the end of April.<\/p>\n<p>Sanjay Bari, who came to the U.S. from Pakistan 36 years ago, says cricket has always been his passion. He was one of the founding members and is the president of the American Cricket Conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had to travel a lot just to play a cricket match. We had only one cricket field back when we started. Now we have about seven\u00a0or eight in and around Chicago,\u201d he adds.\u00a0 With\u00a0humble beginnings and only two teams in 2001, the league saw 41 teams participating last year.<\/p>\n<p>Manish Verma, manager of the Patriots Cricket Club in Chicago, one of the two teams that played in the inaugural\u00a02001 games, says their vision is to make sure cricket fanatics in the Chicago area don\u2019t feel left out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe started off in college. Then some of my friends joined, and then some more people joined. We just wanted to play the game because we loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And\u00a0international cricket has made a stand in the United States. The national team participated in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy, which is the second most important cricket tournament in the world.<\/p>\n<p>However, the United States of America Cricket Association was expelled from the International Cricket Council last year after it failed to adopt a constitution that met a number of requirements to improve governance and transparency. Right now, cricket enthusiasts are trying to build a new governing board<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, some of cricket\u2019s biggest names came to the United States to a three-match series called the All-Star Series. India\u2019s Sachin Tendulkar and Australia\u2019s Shane Warne, arguably two of the greatest cricketers in history,\u00a0captained the two teams . One of the three matches, originally scheduled for\u00a0 Wrigley Field,\u00a0 was later moved to the Minute Maid Park in Houston. Then in August 2016, the Indian national team played West Indies in two matches at Lauderhill, Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can bring international teams, but what about American players? They are not getting enough money so that they can focus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Bari feels that the lack of funding is what is stopping the expansion of cricket in America.<\/p>\n<p>However, none of that is stopping Manish Verma from promoting cricket.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that most of us are getting old, we promote youngsters. Our vision is to make sure that the youngsters don\u2019t forget cricket,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Photo at top: A cricket batsman gets ready to face a delivery in the nets at the Naperville Baseball Academy. Cricket is a lot like baseball. \u00a0(Annanya\/MEDILL)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Annnaya Medill Reports Cricket is all the rage in Southeast Asia where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka\u00a0 revere this\u00a0pastime as more than\u00a0 a major league sport\u00a0 and something closer to a religion. Actual shrines in India are dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar, one of the game\u2019s greatest players. Immigrants who move here miss the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":472,"featured_media":69492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3987],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-69464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2018","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cricket in Chicago kicks off league games in April - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cricket in Chicago kicks off league games in April - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Annnaya Medill Reports Cricket is all the rage in Southeast Asia where India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka\u00a0 revere this\u00a0pastime as more than\u00a0 a major league sport\u00a0 and something closer to a religion. Actual shrines in India are dedicated to Sachin Tendulkar, one of the game\u2019s greatest players. Immigrants who move here miss the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-20T22:29:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Webp.net-compress-image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3958\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2638\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"annanyajohari2018\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"annanyajohari2018\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"annanyajohari2018\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8893e45717e45db4097af4dccefeee84\"},\"headline\":\"Cricket in Chicago kicks off league games in April\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-20T22:29:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":520,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/03\\\/Webp.net-compress-image.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"promo\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\",\"Winter 2018\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/cricket-in-chicago-kicks-off-league-games-in-april\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cricket in Chicago kicks off league games in April - 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